Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179)

Hildegard of Bingen, a mystic or prophet and visionary, wrote books on spirituality, visions, medicine, and nature, as well as composing music and carrying out correspondences with many notables of the day.

Known for
Hildegard catalogued both her theory and practice in two works. Physica  contains nine books that describe the scientific and medicinal properties of various plants, stones, fish, reptiles, and animals. Causae et Curae  is an exploration of the human body, its connections to the rest of the natural world, and the causes and cures of various diseases.

Hildegard documented various medical practices in these books, including the use of bleeding and home remedies for many common ailments. She also explains remedies for common agricultural injuries such as burns, fractures, dislocations, and cuts.

Hildegard has become a figure of reverence within the contemporary New Age movement, mostly because of her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as a mystic. Though her medical writings were long neglected, and then studied without reference to their context, she was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's "Hildegard-Medicine,” and is the namesake for June Boyce-Tillman's Hildegard Network, a healing center that focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings together people interested in exploring the links between spirituality, the arts, and healing.

Her reputation as a medicinal writer and healer was also used by early feminists to argue for women's rights to attend medical schools

Find more
Wikipedia

Works based on
In film, Hildegard has been portrayed by Patricia Routledge in a BBC documentary called Hildegard of Bingen (1994), by Ángela Molina in Barbarossa (2009) and by Barbara Sukowa in the film Vision, directed by Margarethe von Trotta.

Hildegard was the subject of a 2012 fictionalized biographic novel Illuminations by Mary Sharratt.